All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Adam Hofmann welcome to the board, great information and best of luck! I am a bay area guy myself, but got my start in Portland, OR buy accident with a vacation rental that has turned into a nice SFR. As a result, I will probably stay there as I have a good support system and the beginnings of a good team. Perhaps we can meet at one of the meet-ups.

Karen Margrave : like others, my vacation rental is what has led me to begin getting educated with REI to do further deals. I think I have been crazy lucky with appreciation and if I were to do more vacation rentals, I would stick to areas that would qualify for both vacation rental traffic, and short term housing. I bought in Portland, Oregon and turn people away on regular basis due to the fact that there are a constant influx of relocations, vacationers, and short term stays for employers in the area. If you go with a "vacation spot" even year round, if the economy tanks, then you are at risk. As mentioned, searches on VRBO.com, Flipkey and Homeaway are great places to start to determine determine demand and the potential income.

@Jennifer Severado I need to echo what @Ali Boone said.

I do not think the question is in state or out of state, distressed or not distressed, I think the question is about your risk tolerance and desired return.

I have only been on this board two days and what I think I am learning is that Real Estate is just like any other investment, the more risk, the more potential upside. More risk also means that you have a greater chance to lose some or all of your investment.

Since I have a low tolerance to risk, I am saving my cash (and considering pulling some equity from my first SFR deal) to either find a fixer in my out of state market where my existing SFR is and I have an existing support system *or* go with a turn key investment property in a different out of state market.

What has been helpful for me is developing the business plan mentioned in the getting started guide. This helped me and my wife define what we wanted to do (5K per month of rental income to supplement our existing retirement plan) and how we wanted to do it (do not put the existing retirement plan at risk).

Just another point of view.

@Mehran K.